Religion: Vatican v. the Nazis

Catholic resistance to the Nazis both inside Germany and at the Vatican
waxed outspoken last week.

First the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano published the vigorously
anti-Nazi Lenten pastoral of the Most Rev. Conrad Gröber, Archbishop of
Freiburg, which German authorities had suppressed. "The schism of the
German people is undeniable," the prelate declared, adding that instead
of bringing unity the war has made the exclusion of confirmed Catholics
more evident. And then he bade his flock reject passive resignation as
against "conscience and ... the example of Christ" and urged them to
resist Nazi efforts to teach their children anti-Christian doctrines.